Hi everyone,
I just attended my first store championship this past Saturday (28/3/15). For the past few weeks I've been eager to build a list around my all time favourite ship- the TIE Defender! Weeks perform the tournament, I had been testing quite a formidable (well I think so at least) 2 ship list on Vassal. It had a great winning streak, so I thought I'd take it to SC's. So here's the build:
Rexler Brath w/ HLC, Predator (47)
Boba Fett w/ VI, HLC, Recon Spec and a seismic charge (52).
This list is quite simple, throwing 8 attack dice per turn at a High PS. A little bomb surprise from Boba can catch people on the backfoot, granting me a few extra damage in one turn. And most importantly, Boba is PS 10 to hunt down targets but more so to make Rex's ability more efficient in the long run.
Rocking up to store champs, we were expecting 16 people but only 10 showed :'(. The format for the day was 3 rounds then cut to top four. Inspecting everyone's list there were 2 dual aggressor lists, dual decimator, decimator and mini tie swarm, tie swarm with fel, mini crit heavy rebel swarm with E'tahn and wedge, Scum Y and Z swarm, dace and ywing ion build and a scum kath and ig88 B pairing. That's right not a single phantom, 2400 or falcon!
So onto the battle reports (Apologies if I forget some things).
Match 1: IG 88 B and C. Both ships were tooled up uniquely so i can't exactly remember the list. But IG-88 B has FCS, marksmanship, mangler and things. C had push, adv. sensors, mangler and other things.
My opponent and I were talking and thought he'd try out the dual aggressors (he's still in experimenting mode which is awesome). He deployed C on my right and B in the middle. I used my typical deployment and put boba and rex on my right side, where boba is closest to the edge. We both move up forward and I manage to whittle down all of C's shields. My opponent goes for rex and does a few damage I believe. I turn in to the open spaced asteroid field and we continue to dogfight. Rex managed to get a range one shot on C and triggered his ability with 1 hull left and scored a direct hit. Rex was killed in the process. Boba was left against relatively unscathed and managed to hunt down B and C with plenty of time to spare.
Victory 1-0 MOV 152.
Match 2: Another dual aggressor build! B and C again, but arguably more lethal this time! Both were identically equipped. Veteran instincts, title, autoblaster, flechette cannon, accuracy corrector, hot shot blaster. Personally I was terrified of this list just because if i stayed in range one, I'd have a minimum of 8 turns to live! So I aimed to do as much damage as possible at range 2-3. I must say in this battle I felt sorry for my opponent's dice rolls, cause there were just stone cold! But that's the way it is sometimes i guess.
Anyways I set up the exact same way as before with B and C in the same position as the game prior. on the first turn I steamed forth aggressive and got the alpha on C whilst B was out of range. But in this first engagement, C lost 4 shields and 1 hull. Turning into the asteroid, I was able to use the seismic charge as a psychological weapon so that the aggressors wouldn't turn in one direction. I used this to my advantage by not over using the 4K turn on rexler providing some unpredictability to him. C was able to be downed very quickly but before C was destroyed, both of my opponents ships tried to take out rexler but my defence rolls were hot! After this B, flew to my board edge to retreat and recover but it was too late, boba and rex's speed were able to catch IG 88 B in his blind spot on the left side and the match was mine with plenty of time to spare.
Victory 2-0 MOV 352
Match 3:
I was dreading to play against this guy. Not because he's a bad person, just because we have fairly equal skill level and the games always come down to dice! He was playing Wedge with VI, Etahn with FCS and 3 bandits. Really scary build that can eat my list alive if I can't get a good early game lead. he set up horizontally on the right side of the board and set up opposite on the left side, with Rex nearest to the asteroid field. The first few turns we slow played, where my opponent wouldn't commit into the asteroid field. Rex was maneuvering into the middle of the board ready to do a pincer like approach. I right turned boba, approaching the asteroid field on my opponents side of the board. He was able to do 4 shild on boba with wedge and a Z and I think i missed all dice. The next turn was tricky because boba couldn't quite escape into the field or else he'd land on a rock so I was forced to 2 turn into his z-95 blockers. rex moved straight but bumped into a z-95. This turned out good for me due to negating to z's shooting. wedge did a little more damage and wedge was dealt 1 shield I think. rex did some damage into etahn with no loss of shields. The next turn was pivotal for me due to the z's and wedge moving past boba rex K turned facing into the asteroid. Operations bombs away commenced leaving wedge shieldless and a Z slightly damaged. Boba was able to kill a z-95 in the back arc with wedge dealing damage leaving boba on 1 hull. Rex was able to snipe wedge and kill him through a rock! Next turn boba was killed but Rex by himself was able to take out etahn, then a 2nd Z-95. With less than ten miuntes left in the round, Rex and 1 Z-95 dueled it out, leaving rex on 1 hull but victorious!
Victory 3-0 MOV 500
With the only player being 3-0 I progressed to Top 4! My Match 2 and 3 opponents did as well plus a player who was using the Fel and Tie mini swarm.
Top 4 match: Against Match 3 opponent:
I was a bit guttered to be playing him again, cause I barely scraped through the last game! But here we go again! I deployed on my right, him on his left. Essentially the same fashion as prior. I diagonally flew through the field and tried to engage his swarm which was bound to happen. he banked in and on the third turn we exchanged fire. wedge and the z's creamed boba's shields and I was able to target wedge in return leaving him on 1 hull left!!! NOOOOOO! The next turn Boba turned away to the right whilst rex banked into the swarm. Wedge bumped but removed 3 shield on rex - my dice starting to fail me. Boba killed wedge from the auxillary arc and rex tried to damage etahn doing 1 shild I think. boba acumulated a direct hit. From this point I was very damaged and boba extremely predictable! rex turned around trying to one shot a damaged Z but left it on 1 hull. from this point the z's and etahn dealt damaged engine, and the crit that can do damage on a red move. The last z that rex couldn't kill dealt the crit where I collide I get 1 damage. The only chance the boba could live was through a 3 bank to the right. But Etahn just managed to block me so boba was no more. Rex by himself kills 2 Z's but 1 z' manages to finish off rex with a direct hit. First loss of the day for me.
After this game I was pretty guttered, the Swiss rounds I had gone 3-0 with the highest MOV of all the players. I had beaten 2 of the 3 other players in the Top 4 (Everyone but me were 2-1) and I was knocked out. I was really hoping to get to that final but that all I could do. After a few moments of me composing myself, I just took the loss on the chin. That's just how the cookie crumbles I suppose. The other game the tie swarm with fel won. I didn't exactly feel like playing my 2nd match opponent again so instead I watched the final. My opponent that had beaten me ended up tabling the tie mini swarm player and took First place.
Overall I was extremely happy was how I and the list performed. One change I'm testing at the moment is removing the HLC and Recon spec from boba for Engine Upgrade and gunner. I'm also testing out engine upgrade on rexler but losing out on the fun bomb! But We will see how it goes. If anyone wants a game on Vassal, (Tim S, that's me) I'm always happy to play a game.
So I know this is a lengthy post but if you have any comment and queries, I'm happy to answer.
Have a great day everyone 
